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How To Remove Timestamp From Photo: 6 Easy Ways

By Emily Hutton
  • Last Updated: Sep 17, 2022

Having a time and date stamp on a photo can be a great way to date old photographs & remember specific moments in time.

However, date stamps can also ruin a perfect shot – maybe they’re way too big, are covering something important, or even displaying the wrong date!

In this article, we’ll teach you how to remove timestamps from photos in just a few clicks. Here, you’ll find several Photoshop restoration techniques ranging in difficulty.

Depending on your skills and familiarity with these applications, you might have to spend a few days learning the basics and making sure your images look fairly clean and “untouched”. If you don’t have the time or patience to do your photos justice, you can always send your photos to us. We can hand them back to you – date stamp and time stamp-free – in just three days tops!

6 Techniques For Removing Date Stamps And Time Stamps Using Photoshop

If you’ve got access to Photoshop CC or another photo editor, there are several ways you can go about time and date stamp removal.

Here, we highlight six relatively easy ways even Photoshop newbies can remove objects and other unwanted elements from their photos, from time stamps and date stamps to watermarks, blemish, and more:

Date Stamp Removal Using The Crop Tool

Cropping is the easiest and fastest way to get rid of unwanted objects in photos. You don’t even need Photoshop for this, as most standard photo editing tools in your phone or computer will come with a cropping option.

Unfortunately, cropping only works for small objects that are close to the edges of the photo. If they’re too big, too close to the center, or are covering something important, cropping them out might just ruin your photo’s composition.

Here’s how to crop out time and date stamps with Photoshop:

  1. Go to the toolbar and find the Crop Tool. Once selected, crop borders will appear on the edges of your image.
  2. You can either draw a cropping area with your cursor, or click on the corner and edge handles and tug them to your desired boundaries.
  3. Click Enter or Return. Voila, your photo is cropped & hopefully you have removed the date stamp! Don’t forget to click save on your images once you’re done!

Removing Date Stamp With The Brush Tool

If you’re lucky enough to have an image where the date stamp area is on a flat colored background, you can simply use the brush tool to paint over the unwanted object. You can do this in almost any photo editor!

Here’s how to remove the date stamp on your photos using the Brush editing tool:

  1. Find the paint brush icon and select the Brush Tool.
  2. Next, click on the Eyedropper to get a sample of the background color next to the date stamp.
  3. Adjust the brush size if needed so you don’t end up painting over other important objects in your original image.
  4. Simply just drag the brush over the date and/or time stamp and watch it disappear

Remove Date Stamp With The Healing Brush

The Healing Brush and Patch Tool are both great for removing minor imperfections like skin blemishes. The Healing Brush uses background pixels from the original photo and acts as a sort of camouflage to “heal” the spot. Unlike the Patch option which involves selecting a part of the image that you want to “patch” over the date stamp, the Healing Brush creates a seamless blend.

If you don’t want to select a specific sample spot, just use the Spot Healing Brush. This matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the pixels you want to heal.

Here’s how to remove a date stamp from a photo using a Spot Healing Brush:

  1. Click on the Spot Healing Brush in the toolbox.
  2. Pick your desired brush size. It is best to choose a brush that is larger than the area you want to heal so you can easily remove the date stamp from the picture in a few clicks.
  3. Choose a Type option. You have three choices: 
    • Proximity Match, which uses the pixels near the edges of the selection to cover the unwanted object.
    • Create Texture, which makes a texture out of the selected pixels.
    • Content-Aware, which uses data from other objects nearby to fill in the selection.
  4. Click on the spot you want to heal, or click and drag the cursor to “stamp” over the area.

Remove Date Stamp With The Patch Option

Patch acts in a very similar way to the Healing Brush. It allows you to select a part of your image which will be used as a “patch”, then place it over the object you wish to cover up. Unlike the Healing Brush, Patch gives you more control over the size and shape of the area or texture you wish to replicate.

To remove dates with the Patch option, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Patch icon.
  2. Use the Selection Tool to mark the area on the photo that you want to cover up – in this case, the date stamp or time stamp.
  3. Next, place it over to the spot that you want to use as your patch.

Date Stamp Removal Using The Crop Tool

Patch acts in a very similar way to the Healing Brush. It allows you to select a part of your image which will be used as a “patch”, then place it over the object you wish to cover up. Unlike the Healing Brush, Patch gives you more control over the size and shape of the area or texture you wish to replicate.

To remove dates with the Patch option, follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Patch icon.
  2. Use the Selection Tool to mark the area on the photo that you want to cover up – in this case, the date stamp or time stamp.
  3. Next, place it over to the spot that you want to use as your patch.

Batch-Process Images To Remove The Date Stamp & Other Watermarks

While it’s relatively easy to apply the same edits to multiple photos for things like lighting and size, note it’s a different story for removing watermarks and date stamps. This is because the placement of the timestamp (and the surrounding pixels) will likely be different for each photo. But, that’s not to say that it’s impossible.

Here’s how to remove watermarks from multiple photos using batch mode:

  1. Choose the first image you want to edit. Upload image one, create a new ‘Action’ and name it.
  2. Use any one of the tools mentioned above to erase the date stamp from the photo. This “action” will be automatically recorded by the software.
  3. After you successfully erase the date stamp from photo, close the file and stop recording the action.
  4. Next, go to File, then click on Automate, then click Batch.
  5. Find the folder which contains the rest of the photos you want to edit, then save the edited files into a new folder.

Again, this feature isn’t perfect, so don’t expect to get everything done in just one click. You’ll have to go over each photo manually to check if the program was able to erase the stamp without making it seem too obvious.

Remove Date Stamps On Your Digital Photos

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of removing a date stamp from photos every single time you want to upload or print something new, there is a simple solution: just turn it off in your camera settings! Unlike with film cameras, getting rid of date stamp and time stamp information on digital cameras is fairly easy – sometimes, all it takes is one click!

It’s different for every phone brand or digital camera, but most users won’t even need to download any additional software or program. Just go to your phone or camera’s settings and look for the date stamp option in the menu.

Don’t Want To Waste Your Time Removing Date Stamps?

Removing the date stamp isn’t as hard as it looks, but it does take some time, patience, and practice. But if you want to erase time and date stamps off old photos free of hassle, you can simply scan or upload your pictures and shoot us an email.

Our team of seasoned photo restorers can easily remove a date stamp, wrinkles, watermarks, and stains. We can even change backgrounds, touch up faces, colorize photos, and make them look brand new. Plus, we work fast – you can expect your professionally retouched photos back in your hands in as little as 24 to 72 hours.

Finally, you don’t even have to find the free time to drive up to a physical store to retrieve your photos. We’ll email you hi-res copies you can download straight to your computer.

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